Painting Hussars

This entry was posted on May 5, 2015 by Guy Bowers.

Regular readers may recall a while back I wrote a blog on my conversion of Perry French Hussars to their Prussian counterparts. In that blog, I discussed head conversions and the painstaking lengths I went to as hussars have mustaches! It was about time I started painting them, particularly considering there’s now only about a month and a half before our Ligny game. I’ve opted to paint these particular hussars as the 9th Regiment. The models represent the 1st Squadron, which were transferred from the 5th Squadron of the 4th Hussars and thus retain their brown Pelisse. The 2nd squadron was transferred from the 5th squadron of the 5th Hussars and thus wore blue with yellow lace. The third squadron was from the Franc Lützow corps and wore black. Plenty of variety here!

I started with the horses which were undercoated grey. At first, I used a horse tone colour (Coat D’ Arms) slightly diluted, so the paint deliberately went on slightly uneven. Next I did the leather work and saddle in Black Grey (VMC 862). I tend not to be too neat at this stage, as the wash covers many sins and I can always touch up later.

Next I did the saddle lining in red (using my old favourite Coat D’ Arms Red). The horse was washed with Army Painter Strong tone (with Dark Tone on the leather and saddle). The hooves were finished off with some ivory. Its a quick but simple way to get horses done and looking fairly good on the tabletop.

The hussars were done in similar fashion, for speed rather than beauty. I started with Black Grey for the boots and shako cover. Next came the flesh and then the brown of the jacket (VMC 826, German Camo Medium Brown does the trick). I then added an iron colour to the sword, using Brass for the guard.

For the yellow lace, I used GW Iyanden Darksun (no longer available but replaced by Averland Sunset). The Citadel foundation range have excellent coverage and are one of the few yellows you can paint in one stroke. Next I used a black wash on the trousers, sword and shako while I used a brown wash on the torso, face and arms. At this point I applied a few highlights to the flesh and tidied up the model where needed (dry brushing some medium grey on the trousers). Sure, it’s not the neatest technique, but then quantity has a quality of its own (comrade!).